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Creative repair help: Kematen starts its first Repair Café
The first Repair Café took place in Kematen on October 18th. Citizens repaired broken devices together and learned valuable repair tips - a step against the throwaway mentality.
Creative repair help: Kematen starts its first Repair Café
KEMATES. On Friday, October 18th, the first Repair Café in the Kematen community took place in Martinshof. From 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., eleven committed citizens met and, together with five volunteers, tried to repair broken devices and everyday objects. The aim was not only to make the devices functional again, but also to introduce visitors to the step-by-step repair methods.
The event was particularly focused on specific equipment, including broken printers, coffee machines, an ironing station, as well as a music system and various toys. To help the participants sew damaged textiles, two experienced helpers were also available to provide a small range of repairs directly on site.
Community sustainability initiative
Helmut Führlinger, the organizer of the Repair Café and chairman of the environmental committee, emphasized the great interest of the visitors. “It shows that it is important to people not to just throw away broken things, but to give them a second chance,” noted Führlinger. The relaxed atmosphere in which coffee and cake were offered helped the participants not only exchange ideas about technical problems, but also make new friends and share valuable experiences.
What is particularly worth emphasizing is that the Repair Café does not function as an ordinary repair service. Rather, it is a community initiative to promote “help for self-help”. The idea is to show people how to fix minor defects themselves instead of immediately throwing out the trash or buying a new device. This not only promotes repairs, but also environmentally conscious thinking.
In order to efficiently document repair attempts, a form system was introduced. These forms not only help to organize the repairs, but also enable an analysis of the success rate and a categorization of the defective devices. With this collected data, the organizers hope to be able to design future Repair Cafés even better and to specifically record the actual needs in the community.
The next Repair Café in Kematen is already being planned and is scheduled to take place in the first quarter of 2025. An exact date will be announced soon. Interested volunteers are cordially invited to contact the community's citizen service or directly to Helmut Führlinger in order to continue to support the initiative and help many people.